


Arthropleura and Apologies

by TheDarkChocolateLord



Series: Keeptober 2020 [13]
Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fitz and Dex being nice to each other for once, Gen, I'm not sure whether to tag this as Fitz/Dex or not but who cares, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkChocolateLord/pseuds/TheDarkChocolateLord
Summary: Dex and Fitz apologize to each other after Fitz gets injured in Exile.Written for Keeptober 2020 for the prompt 'Rivals'.Trigger warning for a mentioned injury, but it's not graphic.
Relationships: Dex Dizznee & Fitz Vacker, Dex Dizznee/Fitz Vacker
Series: Keeptober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1973125
Kudos: 10





	Arthropleura and Apologies

_ The gadget blaring and smoking when one of the Councillors zapped it with lightning. _

_ Fitz, racing out into the hall to fling it away. _

_ Fitz, pierced by the antenna, half-dead with bug venom spiraling through his chest. _

"Hey. Are you doing okay?"

"Sore, but yeah, I'm feeling better," Fitz said as Dex sat down in a chair by his bed.

"I'm really sorry," Dex blurted, guilt and regret and frustration churning inside him like a badly made elixir that's about to explode with emotions. "About the gadget, I didn't know that it could do that and of course I didn't mean to hurt you and what if you died and I'm really sorry I didn't want to hurt anyone and I ended up doing it and—"

"It was an accident," Fitz interrupted. "None of us saw it coming."

"That's what I keep telling myself, but...it was a design flaw." Dex thought about the fragile metal he used to form the cube, the lack of insulation on his wiring. "If I'd upped the heat shielding—"

"I'm pretty sure that  _ functions just fine after being zapped _ isn't a standard evaluation metric," Fitz pointed out. "Plus, everybody makes mistakes—and we can either learn from them and fix them in the future, or let them consume us and make everything worse, right?"

"I guess you're right," Dex admitted.

"I'm saying this because I'm sorry, too," Fitz tells him, shifting his head to make direct eye contact with Dex. "I had a pretty big superiority complex before...well, before we started breaking the law like once a week. I didn't even know your name—and you knew mine!"

Wonderboy was being nice to him?

Today really had been a strange day.

"Apology accepted," Dex mumbled.

"I just...I want to be friends with you, okay? I get that I wasn't nice to you before but….can we try?"

"I can try."

"Great," Fitz beamed, stretching out his arms. 

Was he trying to…."Don't hug me. It's going to do a ton of damage to your chest. And don't you dare try to sit up."

"Yes, Mom," Fitz mumbled. 

He  _ did  _ lie back down, though.

"Actually, your mother's in the other room," Dex pointed out. "And she'd probably be telling you to get some rest."

"You're right." Fitz slumped back against his pillows.

Dex stared at Fitz's chest (purely to check on the injury, of course).

The venom was receding, and he looked almost….peaceful.

Pretty, really. With his warm brown skin and teal eyes and dark hair—but Fitz was objectively pretty, right? This wasn't a crush or anything, right?

He mumbled an excuse and headed for the door.

  
  



End file.
